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Gossip Girl Round Table: "New York, I Love You XOXO"

Welcome back, once again, to TV Fanatic's final Gossip Girl Round Table Q&A discussion! Below, our panelists break down all aspects of the last Gossip Girl episode, "New York, I Love You XOXO."

In our Q&A session, TVF editor Steve Marsi and staff members Christina Tran, Leigh Raines and Courtney Morrison share their opinions on everything that went down on the season and series finale.

Weigh in with your take on the following topics after reading ours!

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1. What was your favorite scene or quote from the episode?

Courtney: If I'm going for the funny... definitely goes to Jack: "Come on out Blair, Uncle Jack is here to help." Other than that, I loved everyone gathered trying to figure out who was Gossip Girl.

Christina: Mad props to William for both: “Run along back to Florida and be the queen of the swamp people.” and then “You’re a lifetime movie called Nobody Gives a Damn: The Ivy Dickens Story.”

Leigh: Favorite quotes: Jack meeting Georgina. I wish these two had met sooner, their banter alone could've made a spinoff. Favorite scene was the flash forward. They used "You Got The Love" from the Sex and the City finale and that automatically gets me emotional. It was perfect to see everyone in a good place.

Steve: Hizzoner himself, Michael Bloomberg, reading his phone and saying "I thought it was Dorota." Let's just let that sink in ... they got the Mayor of New York City and one of the world's most powerful people to do that. Pretty awesome work, Stephanie. I also enjoyed the closing song, as Leigh said. Great symmetry with SATC and fittingly, Florence + The Machine did the honors in Derena's case.

2. Were you surprised to find out the identity of Gossip Girl?

Courtney: Yes! I guess the signs were there but I had my money on Eric.

Christina: I was a bit surprised because I spent most of the time convinced that Jenny was behind it all. And actually, I think there would have been way less plot holes if the writers went that route.

Leigh: After reading speculation and articles and forums for the last few weeks I narrowed it down to the Humphrey family. Especially when people were saying that there was a key clue at the end of "It's Really Complicated." Dan said he's had a plan this whole time. Boom. I didn't like it at first and then I was like you know what? This is brilliant.

Steve: As the only one of the four of us to pick Dan in last week's Round Table ... I was still surprised the writers pulled the trigger on that, and pleasantly surprised. There's NO CHANCE it was planned that way from the very start, but it feels like there were definite clues dating back to Season 5 and possibly earlier.

3. Chuck and Blair got married and had a Mini-Bass. What was your favorite Chair moment?

Courtney: From this episode? The proposal by far. And seriously, how gorgeous did those two look for their wedding.

Christina: I liked the flash forward with Henry. He was adorable and I was just glad that Chair could finally get their happy ending.

Leigh: The proposal. "Chuck and Blair could never be boring." Also loved their old Hollywood kiss at Bethesda Fountain. However, the best was when Dorota said to Henry, look who it is and he screamed "Daddy" and jumped into Chuck's arms. That made me melt. Then when he was talking to Cyrus, he was looking at Blair adoringly. I wanted more of the Bass family!

Steve: I like that Chuck and Blair have a son and seem like good, happy parents. That to me says more about the long-term stability and strength of their relationship than anything.

4. In the flash forward, we learned that Serena and Dan were tying the knot. It's about time or big mistake?

Courtney: About time! These two have been at the core of the show since say one. Although, after realizing Dan was GG it seemed a little weird. But hey, he loves the girl and she loves him. Good for them!

Christina: What mistake? Serena's goal in life was to get married, and of course she ended up with the one person who was more obsessed with her than herself.

Leigh: Only Serena can decide what's right for her. They waited five years so I can only assume that they sorted all of their crap out. I think it was about time. I wish we saw some more Gossip Girl Season 1 Dan and Serena because that was them at their best. Serena doesn't care that she was written about, "remember you're nobody unless you're talked about."

Steve: She made peace with his role as Gossip Girl, and five years passed, so it's hard to call it a mistake. If they had rushed into it, that would be another story. Team Derena.

6. There were blink-and-you-miss-it scenes with Jenny and Eric. Would you rather have had them come back and play a bigger role?

Courtney: I expected them to have a bigger part since their return was talked about quite a bit. I would have rather had them not return if their role was going to be that small. Did Jenny even talk?

Christina: Of course I would have loved more screen time with the younger siblings; however, the entire finale felt incredibly rushed as is. I’m not so sure how else they could have been involved.

Leigh: I definitely wanted more from Eric and little J. Rachel Bilson and Kristen Bell had more of a role, not that I'm complaining because I'm a fan of both, but we needed a little more Eric and Jenny.

Steve: It did seem a little pointless to bring them back just for that, although at least they helped end the flash forward on a happy note. However, Lisa Loeb was more noteworthy in that scene!

7. Rate the Gossip Girl finale on a scale of 1-10.

Courtney: I always want to give a series finale such a high rating. I thoroughly enjoyed the episode and discovering that everyone was doing so well in the future. There were definite plot holes, but there have been gaping holes in this show from the beginning. I'm going with a solid 8.

Christina: 5! It fell so short of what it could have been. Sure, there were plenty of answers and resolutions, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I'm going to pretend Gossip Girl Season 2 was the end.

Leigh: I'm gonna give it a 10. I'm SURE I will get a lot of arguments because you can never please a whole audience, but they wrapped it up the best they could and we said goodbye. XOXO.

Steve: I'd go much lower, but you can't punish the finale for some of the Season 4-6 episodes that preceded it, so I'll say 9. On its own merit, "New York, I Love You XOXO" was a lot of fun.

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Zoran•December 21, 2012 08:42

It was an exciting drive of read and write comments about the memorable TV series GG! And it was very fun to hang out each week with all of you who have discussed with me! Miss you - Elisa (I think I did not read your comment for the last episode?), neddi (sorry about Lily and Rufus), Marco, pty, b, G. Singular and others that I did not mention it was fun to share opinions and to hang out with you! Maybe we hear on some other forum, who knows! A special greeting to mm (you were great at the concert), as well as for editors of TV Fanatic!Of course in the end - Serena and Dan got married! Serena and Dan got married! Serena and Dan got married! Yeeeeeeeeeeee! XOXO

dee•December 20, 2012 23:02

I was a big fan of Gossip girl in the beginning. But after they got rid of Vanessa and brought in the IMO very boring Ivy. I started to lose interest. I was excited for a little while when they brought in a wealthy AA family and Chuck dated Tika Sumpter's character Raina Thorpe. Sadly they were just written off and written out. I even liked Chuck and Vanessa LOL! I watched just the end to find out who was Gossip Girl. Kind of wish they had done something different with the couples. Derena and Chair ho hum. Similar thing happened for me with The O.C. Although surprising they killed off marissa. But I was not a big Ryan/marissa fan anyway but Taylor with Ryan really? I never thought Seth should be with Summer but felt Anna was really his soulmate. The silly storyline of Summer getting into Brown and Seth trying to "sneak in" because he did not want Summer to know he did not get in was dumb.

They forgot to put one thing. We didn't see the reaction of Blair's minions. I would love to see the reaction of Penelope about Dan being Gossip Girl.

NWink•December 20, 2012 13:25

I was never a big fan of Serena and I still think Dan is too good for her (and too smart for her), but she looked absolutely amazing in the end. I loved Georgina and Jack, I think they are match made in heaven. I am not a romantic but I cried a little when I watched this episode. I remember that when I first pressed play on Gossip Girl I did it without any big expectations. It was like getting a magazine for a bus ride because you forgot a book - something to relax and kill time. And then I fell in love with the characters and I am so glad they all got their happy ending.

PrincessJ•December 20, 2012 10:16

Favorite quote:Henry: Daaaaaaaady He's so cute. I love the ending for Chair.